


Library

by SquaryQ



Series: They Exchanged A Smile - Anxious Babies - MultiFandom [5]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Anxiety, Anxiety Disorder, Anxious Takao Kazunari, College AU, I headcanon that Takao has anxiety and nobody can tell me otherwise, M/M, University AU, crashing in the library, sleeping in the library, twenty four hour libraries are a gift and a curse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-30 01:00:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13939200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquaryQ/pseuds/SquaryQ
Summary: After crashing in the library, Takao must face the consequences.





	Library

_You’re walking through a corridor; big white walls, a skylight, open space, but a corridor all the same. The openness of the space is light, bright and congested. Hundreds of thousands of people walk with you, but there is space for all of you to take things at your own paces._

_You’re walking in the crowd, and trip on air. And then BAM._

_You’re suddenly in the place of Indiana Jones, The walls are covered in spines, drawing nearer to you, ready to pierce your skin. The ceiling, once lit and encompassing is now stifled with shutters and like a drawbridge, it lowers down around you._

_You fold in on yourself and try to stay safe, head between your knees, on the ground, struggling to breathe._

_Until it’s gone._

_And you’re back in the corridor again, filled with its big white walls and skylight, sneering at you, mockingly. The people near you have stopped, some faces are blurry, the kindness and consideration of strangers, laced with doubt and suspicion._

_You’re playing up for the attention._

_Other faces are familiar, your big sister and your boyfriend, each offer you a hand. Only for them to be drowned out by an intrusive burning white light._

 

Takao Kazunari awoke with a start, screaming sunlight from open blinds assaulting his now open eyelids. He used his hand to shield his eyes while glancing around him to get my bearings. Walls of books stood on either side of him, but in front of him was a huge imposing window, where the offending light had appeared from. Takao groaned, rolling onto his stomach, covering his eyes with his hands and stretching.

He frowned at a large stack of books that rested beside him, chicken-scratch notes written on scrap paper stared back at me. Poetry. He groaned, knowing he needed to stop conjuring up lines in a state of partial consciousness. Attempting to decipher notes made when he was half asleep is never an easy task. Shin-chan once told him it would be easier to infiltrate the Yakuza single handed. Takao sighed, rolling back over and staring at the ceiling.

Slowly, out of a sleep provoked funk, rational coherence began to articulate in his mind, cogs slowly turning to make sense of his situation.

Takao had crashed in the library. Passed out on one of the orange beanbags on the top floor, where he could sink into nothing and drown his thoughts in silence.

He had crashed in the library. Again.

That’s the third time this month. Ugh.

Shin-chan would be worried about me by now. Takao grimaced, taking a few deep breaths and grabbing his phone and scrolling through his notifications, he noted that he had seven new texts, one was menial – from Miyaji, asking if I was going to be free to come over for a catch up this week. The rest appeared to be of actual merit – two were from Kumiko. His sister was saying that she was latching the door and he would have to crash on Shin-chan’s sofa if we had been…no, absolutely not.

He cursed his younger sister, wondering what on earth she may have blabbered on about to her parents to explain why he had missed dinner and the so called “compulsory family time”. Takao sighed, looking back at his notifications.

The last four from Shin-chan asking whether he was okay because apparently Kumiko had called telling him to hand her brother over as it was his turn to cook dinner.

Craaaaap.  Even more reason for him to be in trouble.

A lump rose in his throat as he began to ponder the repercussions of missing the meal he was meant to be providing for the family. He grimaced, as he wondered whether he would be grounded. He really couldn’t get grounded right now, deadlines were right around the corner and being cooped up in the house meant that he couldn’t run around on the basketball court if things got too much for him.

Scrolling through his contacts, with trembling fingers, Takao groaned, running a hand through his outgrown inky undercut.

Kumiko picked up after the second ring.

“Kazu! Hey, where were you?”

“I was in the library, I am so so so sorry.”

“Yeah, yeah, kinda figured you’d be sorry. It happens though, you okay?”

“If I say no are you gonna give me a self-care lecture again.”

“Probs.”

“Well…”

“Kazu, it’s fine to feel crappy, yanno that right?”

“Yes, I know ‘Miko.”

“Good! Now I’ll text Mum and Dad and tell them you’ve gone back to uni and you can do as you do. But you’ll have to cook tonight instead of me because I covered your ass and did dinner yesterday even though I was soooooo tired.”

Takao sighed at his sister’s theatrics, despite being aware of the farcical nature of them, he couldn’t escape the idea that he would be in an incomprehensible amount of trouble.

“…Thank you, you’re the best.”

“I know!” She exclaimed, not seeming to notice the pause.

She hung up on him before he could query the way his family had responded to his absence. He knew this would bother him for the rest of the day but didn’t want to be a nuisance to his younger sister.

 

Takao sighed, stretching and grabbing his things, stuffing all his study materials into his rucksack when a shadow loomed above him.

“Ahem.”

Takao turned around slowly, glancing at who had attracted his attention. Upon recognising the face, he relaxed, body becoming less rigid as he smiled sheepishly, “Morning Shin-chan.”

“Figured I would find you in here,” Midorima Shintaro, Takao’s boyfriend replied. He shook his head, a small yet fond smile on his face. He handed a to-go cup of coffee to Takao.

“I thought you’d need this.”

“How did you find me?”

“Snap-maps.”

Takao’s face goes pale, he opens his phone and sighs, he did sync his devices to campus Wi-Fi and didn’t fall asleep with his mobile data on. He narrowed his eyes, and turned back to his boyfriend, getting to his feet with a little jump.

That didn’t explain why his boyfriend decided the smartest way to track him down was to search on the newest instalment on Snapchat – a tracking system that showed where your friends on Snapchat were. It was an aspect of the app that Kumiko was forbidden to activate, but he was allowed to as a university student.

“Stalker!” he declared, grinning and leering toward Midorima, watching the green haired bespectacled boy’s face turn pink.

“Seriously? I buy you coffee and you accuse me of stalking! What does a guy have to do to get some positive affirmation?”

Takao laughed, handing his coffee back so he can finish packing his stuff away.

“C’mon, I’ll probably have a breakdown if I stay here much longer.”

Midorima smiled, grabbing the textbooks that Takao had moved to his makeshift bedside. He shook his head.

 

Takao lingered at the end of the aisle, smiling. Shintaro smiled back.

“Shin-chan, wanna come over for dinner tonight? I’m cooking!”

“It would be my pleasure.” He replied, more than aware he was just going to be acting as a shield to keep the wrath of Kazunari’s parents at bay. Not that they struck him as particularly aggressive or strict.

The pair joined hands at the end of the aisle and shared a smile.


End file.
